"There is, of course, one problem," said Jiang Cheng.
"What is it, Sect Leader Jiang?" asked Ouyang Zizhen.
"Mo Xuanyu is still a bastard, despite being a Jin by blood." Jin Guangyao would have never legitimised him, even before he kicked him out, because that would have been one more person with a claim to the sect leader position and he would never give himself competition.
Wei Wuxian's face turned slightly pale and then worryingly, a shade of green.
"Don't look so stressed, we'll just have to find a way to get A-Ling to legitimise you before we present you to the council. If the sect leader appoints his own regent they can't override him. And you have a stronger claim than any of them so they can't actually say you don't deserve it."
"No..that's not what I.. nevermind."
"Are you okay, Senior Wei?" asked Zizhen, "You don't look so great."
"It's nothing much. I just realised I have Jin Guangshan's blood in me," he shuddered.
"Hey! A-Ling has his blood too," protested Jiang Cheng… who then winced as he thought the better of it because you know what? That actually was kind of traumatic. He'd hate to have that horndog's blood in him. It was bad enough being related to him through marriage.
"I see your point, nevermind," he cleared his throat, "Anyway we need to have a plan. Aside from you, we might need someone in Koi Tower who we can trust to have your back. A second-in-command if you will."
"Yes! A sidekick! Senior Wei we have to get you a sidekick," beamed Ouyang Zizhen. "I volunteer!" he said cheerfully.
Jiang Cheng shot him an exasperated look, "Really? Did you forget you're the sect heir of Baling Ouyang?"
"Oh, right," he said, deflating sadly. He'd forgotten his own position for a moment. He'd gotten excited at the thought of being in on such an important scheme in a tangible way. Sect Leader Jiang was taking a risk by saying all of this in front of him and he'd gotten hyped up that the notoriously stern sect leader had faith in his trustworthiness.
"Ah cheer up kiddo, we'll find other ways for you to help out," said Wei Wuxian, noticing his expression and ruffling his hair fondly.
After thinking for a minute he said, "Oh I know, you can go collect Lil Apple for me!" It would take a few days for Dai Yong to get to Lotus Pier with the donkey. Ouyang Zizhen could deliver a letter for Second-in-Command Pan to give Dai Yong some more silver to bring the donkey to Koi Tower instead.
The young Ouyang agreed but was still dejected that he didn't get to be Senior Wei's sidekick.
Wei Wuxian, who didn't like seeing people unhappy, tried to find a silver lining for him. "Well...well look at it this way, you might not be able to be my sidekick, but right now you're Sect Leader Jiang's!"
"Now hold on just a minute-" Jiang Cheng started protesting, but two pairs of eyes went round and shiny at him and he just sighed and accepted that he got himself a sidekick (more like Wei Wuxian got him a sidekick) with only minimal grumbling.
"If you want to be my 'sidekick' you'll have to do as I say with no questions asked, got it?" he said sternly.
"Yes, Sect Leader!"
Man the kid really was like a puppy. He could practically see a tail wagging. Jiang Cheng would never admit to being endeared.
"Well, you'll be faster than a letter. A-Ling needs to know about our plan as soon as possible. The donkey will take a few more days to get to Lotus Pier so that isn't urgent, you can do it afterwards. I want you to go back to Koi Tower first and let A-Ling know what's going on. We're also heading there but as I'm a Sect Leader, my arrival will be noted and their eyes will remain on me. As A-Ling's friend you have some more leeway. Try to be as discreet as possible when going into Koi Tower. Don't let anyone overhear what you have to tell A-Ling either. If he agrees (which he undoubtedly will because my A-Ling is a smart boy, he thought proudly) tell him that to legitimise his uncle Mo Xuanyu, he doesn't need anyone else. As the Sect Leader he can change the status of anyone in the official records himself, he doesn't need anyone's permission."
The council would be fighting amongst themselves for a while. The Jins' greed and lust for power would work against the council because it gave them time to put their plan into action.
"Consider it done!" said Ouyang Zizhen, who sped off back to Koi Tower. He'd arrive before them since they'd decided to delay for a bit so that Jin Ling would have time to make changes before his uncle arrived as the council would start keeping an eye on them once he did. If Jin Ling did not agree to the plan, Zizhen would meet them halfway and let them know so they could reconfigure but Jiang Cheng doubted that would be the case.
Now that Ouyang Zizhen was no longer there to serve as a distraction, the thought of what he'd agreed to do just hit Wei Wuxian.
Sect Leader. Him?!
Just thinking of all those meetings he would have to attend and the paperwork and and… the formalities he would have to stick to. Ugh. So boring! Worse yet he'd have to be polite to all those stuck up sect leaders who looked down on his shijie's son AND his shidi because he had to help Jin Ling restore their sect's reputation so he couldn't just menace them.
And also it's not like this could really work, right? He assumed most of them knew the Yiling Patriarch had returned so even if he had Mo Xuanyu's body and thus Jin blood… there's no way they'd really accept this. Right?
He was starting to get anxious.
"What's wrong?" asked Jiang Cheng, when Wei Wuxian had been quiet for too long.
"Jiang Cheng," he gulped, "Let's abort mission!"
"What? No!"
"It's not too late. We can find another way!"
"The Ouyang kid is probably halfway on his way to Koi Tower already and this is the best we can do short of resurrecting Jin Zixuan."
Wei Wuxian's eyes widened hopefully and he was about to enthusiastically agree to do that but Jiang Cheng knew his mistake immediately after he said it and clamped a hand over Wei Wuxian's mouth preemptively to stop him from vocalising his cursed thoughts.
Wei Wuxian gave him puppy eyes.
Jiang Cheng moved his hand.
"Please Jiang Cheng" he begged in addition to the puppy-dog eyes.
"Absolutely not! And your pouts don't work on me!" Jiang Cheng said, crossing his arms. (He lied- they absolutely did work on him… just not where Jin Ling was concerned...or resurrecting dead people.)
"But you know I'll be no good at leadership, I'm a free spirit!" And he'd really want to beat up those idiot council members.
"You don't need to be good at leadership, you just need to be Mo Xuanyu, A-Ling's supposedly crazy cutsleeve uncle."
"Does that mean I have leeway to cozy up to Sect Leader Jiang?" he grinned.
Jiang Cheng snorted, "Did you forget you told everyone that Hanguang-Jun was your type and insinuated you wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole? It would be out of character to act otherwise now."
Wei Wuxian huffed. He should have expected Jiang Cheng would not truly let that go. But given that he had said it to purposefully rile him up since he knew how much Jiang Cheng hated being compared to anyone, he only had himself to blame. Anyway that made him remember exactly why he was trying to rile Jiang Cheng up in the first place.
"But they know now that I'm not actually Mo Xuanyu!" he said, actually serious. His identity was discovered after all, despite his best attempts to hide.
"And what can they do about it? You're in his body, he has Jin Guangshan's blood. It's technically allowed, especially if the Sect Leader sanctions it. Besides, given that they know it's you they'll think twice before acting up. You have a good relationship with all of the major sect leaders now, given that Lan Wangji is helping run the Lan. They can't do a thing about it if none of us protest working with you. They simply wouldn't have the support externally and will have to accept it. Internally of course that's why I said we need someone we trust to be there. But the question is who…"
It was Wei Wuxian's turn to get a brilliant idea. He didn't know if it would work and she might cuss him out for it but...
"Why don't we bring back MianMian!" Lan Zhan had told him how MianMian defended him and defected from her clan because of the hypocrisy. MianMian was close to Jin Zixuan once. Not only was she righteous and upstanding, but she was also familiar with the Jin sect and could tell Jin Ling more about his father. Those who were loyal to Jin Ling because of Jin Zixuan would probably accept her easily as well, though he was sure the older ones, especially those rotten elders, would try to make trouble. Of course what the Sect Leader decrees goes and so there'd be nothing they could actually do to stop it.
"Hmm that's a thought. Do you think she'd be willing to come back to the Jin Sect? She didn't leave because she was happy with them."
"I don't know but we can ask can't we? She has a family now so she might not but it's worth a shot." And he'd feel so much more comfortable if he knew there was someone else he could trust there.
"Alright, do you know where to find her? We can go now if it's not too far."
"Mm. Lan Zhan and I ran into her a while back. I could probably find her house again."
"Well let's go then. We have no time to waste," he stepped on Sandu and gestured for Wei Wuxian to join him, "Make sure you actually hold on this time."
Wei Wuxian just clutched at him tightly in response and directed him where to go.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
"Look there's the house up ahead!" said Wei Wuxian, pointing it out excitedly.
Jiang Cheng adjusted their position accordingly.
When they had almost reached the clearing where her house stood, they noticed MianMian walking with her husband and daughter up the path.
"MianMian!" Wei Wuxian called, unconsciously loosening his grip on Jiang Cheng as he waved exuberantly to the people down below.
Luo Qingyang looked up just in time to see Wei Wuxian fall off the sword.
Jiang Cheng couldn't believe it. He told him to hold on tight! His heart was crashing in his chest as he dove with the sword, trying to catch Wei Wuxian before he hit the ground. They were still high up in the air!
Luckily they had mostly cleared the forest so he wasn't hindered by a bunch of trees along the way, but Jiang Cheng was able to grab the back of his robes thanks to a lone tree branch which grazed him and slowed his fall.
He pulled Wei Wuxian flush against him and he landed wearily on the ground in front of Luo Qingyang's shocked family.
They both had to catch their breaths but Wei Wuxian managed a smile as his legs shook, only standing by the grace of Jiang Cheng's arm still clamped around his stomach.
"Hi MianMian *wheeze* and mini MianMian."
"Your face," said the little girl, pointing at him with wide eyes.
"Eh, what about my face?" he said puzzled, bringing his hand to his face. He touched something sticky and as the adrenaline faded he recognised a stinging sensation.
Jiang Cheng saw the blood on his hand at the same time as he did and he spun him around to look at him.
There was a thin cut, most likely from when he got scraped by the branch as he was falling.
He grinned sheepishly, the movement pulling at the thin cut and making it sting even more. "Don't worry, it's not so bad, and if it scars don't you think I'll look more manly?" he said to Jiang Cheng, whose face was red from a multitude of emotions.
"You! Do you think it's time to be joking right now?! You never learn to read a situation, must I sew your lips shut so you wouldn't talk nonsense anymore?! You could have died!" he scolded, as his heart thumped loudly, only starting to stabilise as they were on solid ground.
"I think I've got deja vu right now," Luo Qingyang was whispering to her husband in the background.
This felt so familiar to her that she couldn't help but shiver at the recollection of the other occasion this reminded her of.
Wei Wuxian pouted sulkily at the reprimand (he didn't mean to fall!) as Jiang Cheng passed his thumb over the cut lightly, infusing some of his qi to knit the skin back together. Wei Wuxian realised what he was doing and looked up at him wonderingly, feeling oddly touched.
"What's that look for? Don't think too much about it. It will take Mo Xuanyu's weak core too long to heal it and we certainly can't have you show up in Lanling with a long cut on your face," Jiang Cheng said stubbornly.
"Of course," Wei Wuxian agreed, allowing his thin-faced shidi his denial, but smiling brightly at him anyway. He never thought that he'd be on the receiving end of Jiang Cheng's care again. His chest felt tight with emotion.
"Jiang-zonghzu, Wei-gongzi, maybe you should come inside…" said Luo Qingyang.
"Yes, thank you Lady Luo," Jiang Cheng said, ushering Wei Wuxian ahead of him. Her husband did a double take. Jiang-zongzhu!? There was a sect leader in his house?
Luo Qingyang offered them seats and then brought back a wet cloth for Wei Wuxian to wipe the residual blood off of his face. Jiang Cheng grumbled about him taking too long and missing and grabbed the cloth to wipe at the smeared blood himself.
For some reason, Wei Wuxian's face felt heated.
"Not that it's not good to see you again Wei-gongzi, but I'm going to assume this is not a social call," said Luo Qingyang.
Wei Wuxian laughed sheepishly, "Ah MianMian, smart as ever."
"We're sorry to bother you, Lady Luo, but we do have a request."
Luo Qingyang raised an eyebrow and he continued, "That is to say, we were wondering if we could convince you to rejoin the Jin sect."
Shock blossomed on her face. "I have to admit I don't know what I was expecting you to say, but it wasn't that. Jiang-zongzhu, I left the Jin sect for a reason. You were there, you should know. The hypocrisy of all those old men would not have changed. And that isn't limited to the Jin sect. It's why I don't have anything to do with cultivators. Plus I have a family now who are not cultivators, though if MianMian wanted to join a sect I would support her."
Jiang Cheng sighed, "Yes, I am aware, Lady Luo. But we do have… a plan you could say. I can't exactly speak for the rest of the cultivation world but at least in the Jin sect we can try to get rid of some of those old farts. You would be invaluable help. You don't even have to stay indefinitely, just a few years. If you'd be amenable to hearing us out at least, we'd appreciate it."
"Yeah MianMian, let's go shake up the Jin sect!" Wei Wuxian grinned.
She looked at him intrigued. She couldn't deny that it'd be satisfying to kick out some of those old coots but honestly she didn't really want to get caught up in it, especially because she knew how power-hungry they could be.
"Alright, so I agree the Jin sect needs to be cleansed of those old perverts and hypocrites, but why is the Jiang Sect involved?" she queried suspiciously.
Jiang Cheng sighed. "The Jiang Sect isn't involved. Not exactly. I suppose you could say that I'm acting as Jin Ling's uncle rather than the Jiang Sect Leader."
"Jin Ling… Jin Rulan you mean? Zixuan's son?" she said quietly.
"Yes."
Jin Zixuan had been a dear friend. Despite their difference in status, he had treated her very well, and he'd also protected the female disciples best as he could from his perverted father's advances. He may have been somewhat spoiled– a rich, arrogant little 'peacock' as Wei Wuxian liked to call him, but he never mistreated others like his cousins did. He was also kind in his own way. Zixuan had a good heart, but he was so awkward. It often led to a lot of misunderstandings. It was how they ended up becoming friends in the first place, she'd understood him better than most and often had to act as a mediator.
His death was a blow she hadn't expected. She had already left the sect by then of course, though he had written to her and begged her to reconsider. She was glad she hadn't in the long run, but she had felt the Jin sect had lost its chance at a good leader with his death.
Now his young son was the leader of that snake pit. Zixuan had his faults but for a man who grew up among the Jin, he was startlingly genuine. She truly believed he could have changed the Jins for the better. But Zixuan was lost to them now. Jin Rulan however, was not, and if he was anything like his father…
"Honey, could you go to the market with MianMian? I know we were supposed to go together but I can at least hear them out. I won't agree to anything without you anyway so if I decide to consider it we can talk about it when you get back," she said to her husband.
Fan Huiqing, who was still a bit awed that a sect leader was in their humble abode, trusted his wife's judgement and agreed. They had been on their way to the market before the cultivators literally crashed their day. He would have been loath to leave her alone with two seemingly powerful men (he was a non-cultivator but he wasn't an idiot. The reputations of those two men preceded them, even in civilian communities.) but she greeted them like old acquaintances, despite speaking formally. And he did meet Wei Wuxian before with that other cultivator so he wasn't a total stranger. Plus for the reviled Yiling Laozu, Wei Wuxian was rather… goofy. Something about him inspired trust. And well, Qingyang had talked about him before, he had helped her after all. So it was with that in mind that he took his little daughter and went to the market, hoping that everything would be okay when he got back.
"Alright, tell me about this plan Jiang-zonghzu."